The present invention relates to a hanger caddy operable in two positions for storing hangers and for release of stacked, stored hangers.
Millions of plastic garment hangers are removed from clothing each day at point-of-sale in retail stores. These hangers must be dealt with in the back rooms of the stores through a process of untangling, sorting by style and organizing them for re-use. This is a serious problem because of labor intensiveness, cost of broken hangers ($0.25 to $1.00 each) due to tangle, storage space and retail efficiency. In addition, new federal and state regulations against discarding plastic hangers into the nation""s landfills, makes recycling for all retail stores a necessity.
Successful hanger management is thwarted by the multiplicity of hanger styles used in retail stores. Previous attempts to sort and organize all hangers have failed because no one hanger management system will accept and sort all hangers.
At present, to sort hangers, boxes of various materials and sizes are used at point of sale. Hangers removed by sales clerks are thrown into these boxes. When full, the boxes of hangers are removed to the back of the retail establishment, the hangers untangled and sorted for re-use. This method is the most frequently used system and the most costly from the standpoint of labor costs, efficiency and broken hanger expense.
A hair-pin fixture sorting method uses a metal fixture consisting of two metal hoops, one shorter than the other. The hanger hook is placed in the tallest hoop and hanger arms are placed between the two hoops. This method makes no attempt to align hooks or separate hooks by style. This system is only slightly superior to the box sorting method because of tangling of hangers, broken hangers still exist and re-sorting is still necessary.
The bar sorting system uses three to six bars approximately 24 inches long. Each bar is designated for a specific hanger type and sortation results to some degree, dependent completely on employee discipline. In operation, serious problems develop if foam rubber hold downs unlock in which case all hangers can fall off the bars during transfer from a bar rack at a point of sale to a rolling rack for transfer to a back room. Bars must be held horizontal and hangers tend to swing out of alignment and frustrate easy loading on rolling racks. This system is the most expensive hanger management system mainly because it has a very elaborate racking system required to hold hangers, its many plastic pieces and foam rubber parts that require replacement.
It has been determined that the critical distance for a hanger is the center of the hanger hook to the shoulders or arms of the hanger. Since this distance varies by style, retail chain dedicated hangers and manufacturer, a number of hanger fixtures are required and designed to accept each particular hanger type. This clearly is unacceptable, costly, confusing and unworkable because of space requirements.
Hanger standardization then would seem to be the only real solution; however, this solution would have to be industry-wide. This apparently will not happen in view of the large investment in the present inventory of retail hangers which would have to be scrapped and replaced with new standardized hangers at a substantial cost. Since the problem remains, the problem to be solved must be how to bring order and efficiency to the tangle and confusion of the costly hanger management problem.
A detailed examination of the multiplicity of hanger styles reveals a startling consistency in the midst of all this confusion. The swivel metal hook on the garment hanger, on 99 percent of all hangers, is standardized.
With this fact in mind, the present invention includes a fixture that aligns the hanger hook in only one direction. In addition, a xe2x80x9cglide rodxe2x80x9d, a xe2x80x9cguide rodxe2x80x9d and a xe2x80x9chook guide rodxe2x80x9d loosely hold the hanger hooks in a predetermined position on the hanger stacker fixture.
The hanger caddy of the present invention allows hangers to be sorted by style if desired or to be used for acceptance of all styles on one caddy fixture. In the later instance, the various hanger styles can easily be removed when the fixture is hung horizontally by its base, unfastening the top hold clamp and swinging the xe2x80x9chook guide rodxe2x80x9d up for clear and easy removal of one or several hangers from the glide rod.
The present invention is designed to accept all garment hangers for the purpose of collecting, organizing and sorting garment hangers for efficient recycling and re-use. These hangers include plastic and metal hangers as well as wood hangers which use a swivel metal hook. Most non-swivel hangers are also accommodated.
The present invention is essentially an efficient hanger management system for both small and large clothing stores and chain stores. Since no other system now offers this capability, this system is truly unique.
The metal fixture of the present invention consists of ⅝xe2x80x3 metal rod construction through-out, having a base configured in a pie-shape to allow four fixtures to occupy approximately a 15xe2x80x3xc3x9715xe2x80x3 space which is very space efficient for a retail store.
Two upwardly extending, parallel vertical guide rods extend from the base providing support and stability to the fixture. One of the guide rods guides an arm of the hanger, whereas the other guide rod guides the base of the hook of the hanger.
A glide rod located between the two guide rods, extends 29xe2x80x3 vertically from the base. The top 4 xc2xd inches of the glide rod become the xe2x80x9cneckxe2x80x9d of the fixture, providing a projection for the hook of the hanger to easily grab or hook the xe2x80x9cglidexe2x80x9d rod which after release of the hanger by the employee glides down to the base with one of the arms of the hanger contacting one of the guide rods while the base of the hanger hook contacts the other guide rod.
The top of the glide rod bends back parallel and downwardly 4 xc2xdxe2x80x3. The glide rod is then bent at a 90 degree angle and is welded to a hoop to form a support for the fixture.
A second rod, one of the two xe2x80x9cguide rodsxe2x80x9d, extends upwardly from the base approximately 25 xc2xd inches where it bends 90 degrees to form the hoop encircling the glide rod, which serves as a carrying handle and a support for the fixture and is connected to the downward projection of the glide rod. The right side of the hoop bends back parallel to the other leg of the hoop and downwardly at 90 degrees to form an axis or pivot connection with the other of the two guides rods, the xe2x80x9chook guide rodxe2x80x9d.
The hook guide rod forming the other of the two guide rods extends approximately 25 xc2xdxe2x80x3 from the base. At the base, the hook guide rod is pivotally connected to the bottom of the glide rod. The opposite end of the hook guide rod is pivotally connected to the hoop carrying handle allowing the hook guide rod to swing or pivot away to an open position through 300xc2x0 of rotation, providing free access to the glide rod for removal of hangers.
The hook guide rod allows easy and efficient access to the hangers that are stacked or gathered on the fixture. It also allows the holding of the hangers in place by engaging the hanger hook and thus holding hangers securely on these fixtures no matter what hanger style is involved.
The tie-down strap or clamp is necessary to secure the hook guide rod in place in a closed position and prevent it from pivoting. This strap or clamp would be secured at all times until the fixture is ready to be placed in a horizontal position and unloaded. A wall mounted bracket is used to hang the fixture from two hooks designed to attach to the base on opposite sides of the glide rod. The strap or clamp would then be disconnected or released and the hook guide rod would be swung up and out of the way giving open access to the hangers.
It should be noted that the bottom axle of the hook guide rod will have a xe2x80x9cstop protrusionxe2x80x9d that will engage with the toe of the glide rod to maintain the hook guide rod in the open position. The stop will be welded to the hook guide rod.
To operate the system of the present invention, at the point of sale, a hanger is removed from a garment. The employee takes the hanger by the arm and hooks the hook of the hanger around the projecting neck of the glide rod and releases the hanger. The hanger glides down the glide rod to the base. The hanger hook can not be placed on the fixture incorrectly. A support bar between the glide rod and one of the guide rods blocks acceptance of hanger hooks incorrectly oriented on the glide rod and then, with the hook guide rod insures all hanger hooks are in perfect alignment. The present invention has the only xe2x80x9cfail-safexe2x80x9d employee proof hanger management system.
The universal hanger fixture can be used in the vertical position, such as beside a cash register or a cluster of four fixtures can also be located near a register of a store. The fixture can also be used under the register or cash wrap stand when mounted on a bracket which holds the caddy fixture at an 18 degree angle allowing the hanger hook to be placed on the xe2x80x9cneckxe2x80x9d of the glide rod and released to have the hanger glide down slowly by gravity down to the base of the fixture. The gravity feed feature of the present invention provides for a simple fixture with no complicated moving or replaceable parts, only a pivotable hook guide rod.
The garment hanger fixture of the present invention solves most of the problems associated with hanger management systems. It focuses on the only standard feature of all hangers regardless of style, the swivel hook. By ensuring that all of the hooks of the hangers are aligned in only one direction and that the base of the hook and one arm of the hanger are held in position by the guide rods, the variable size of the hanger itself is unimportant. By accepting all hangers, the hanger caddy of the present invention becomes a universal hanger management fixture.
The introduction of the xe2x80x9cswing-awayxe2x80x9d hook guide rod that holds the bottom of the hanger hook in an aligned position, not only allows universality by accepting all hangers but provides the important additional benefit of xe2x80x9ceasyxe2x80x9d removal of various styles of hangers without tangle or breakage. The labor intensive cost of resorting from boxes, etc., has been all but eliminated by this feature.
The tie-down strap or clamp at the top of the fixture holds the hook guide rod in an operating position. The tie-down strap or clamp can be made of metal or plastic which fastens to the hoop frame and is held in the closed position by a snap lock or swivel slot lock engaging the hook guide rod. When unlocked, the hook guide rod can be swung upwardly to provide clear access to the hangers for easy unobstructed removal during the sorting process. This procedure, of course, would only be performed when the caddy fixture is hung in the horizontal unloading position.
The garment hanger fixture operates in a number of different modes. In a first vertical up-right mode, the fixture stands against the cash-wrap and hangers are xe2x80x9chookedxe2x80x9d on the neck of the glide rod and merely released allowing gravity to let the hanger glide to the base of the fixture. It may also be operated in a second cluster of four mode utilizing the pie-shaped base allowing for minimum usage of floor space. The third operating mode is at an angle of 15 to 18 degrees and is mounted by a mounting bracket under the cash-wrap counter. The neck of the caddy extends beyond the edge of the counter allowing hanger hooks to be placed on the neck of the glide rod and letting hangers glide down to the base.
The mounting bracket can be used individually or in multiple arrangements, for example, one above another, properly spaced and allowing a rack of up to five caddys to be hung from a storage room wall for storage or xe2x80x9csorting purposes.xe2x80x9d This rack arrangement can be used xe2x80x9cunderxe2x80x9d the point of sale cash wrap to accommodate two universal caddys, one above the other, in a 15xe2x80x3 by 27xe2x80x3 space, thus removing the hangers from view. As will be seen, the xe2x80x9ctoexe2x80x9d of the base fits into the mounting bracket, accepting a base end of the glide rod in a xe2x80x9cslotxe2x80x9d of a center metal plate of the bracket and allowing the base of the fixture to xe2x80x9crestxe2x80x9d at an 18 degree bend-back angle, thus holding the caddy at the proper angle so hangers xe2x80x9cglidexe2x80x9d downwardly to the base and stack.
Since the garment hanger caddy accepts a wide variety of hangers, sorting of hangers for reuse will be necessary. Therefore a system to simplify and expedite the recycling and reuse of hangers is needed. A mounting rack of five brackets would be mounted on the wall of the sorting area. Empty universal caddys would be placed on four of the brackets with the xe2x80x9chook guide rodxe2x80x9d swung up in the open position allowing clear access to the xe2x80x9cglide rodxe2x80x9d. The fifth bracket would be used for the fully loaded caddy that needs to be sorted. The particular mounting bracket chosen would be the bracket height most convenient for the height of the sorting employee.
Each of the empty caddys would be designated for specific hanger styles. As more and more caddys from the sales floor are unloaded and sorted onto the other caddys by style and become loaded, the xe2x80x9chook guide rodxe2x80x9d is swung down and secured in position by a tie-down strap or clamp and the caddy is removed for reuse and another empty caddy put in place on the mounting rack. Caddys that have been permanently dedicated to a particular style of hanger can be used at re-hangering positions and fitting rooms with the center mounting piece of the bracket screwed into the wall to hold the designated hanger caddy in place.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a garment hanger caddy that is capable of accepting all types of hangers and holding the hangers in an aligned position.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a garment hanger caddy for holding a plurality of different hangers in an aligned position with a hook guide rod movable between a closed position for storing the hangers on the caddy and an open position for gaining access to the hangers located on a glide rod.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a hanger caddy for storing a plurality of hangers in an aligned orientation with a pivotable hook guide rod movable between a closed position and an opened position where access is gained to aligned hangers located on a glide rod.
It is still yet another object of the present invention to align a plurality of hanger caddys at an angle of between 15 to 18 degrees with respect to a vertical wall so as to remove hangers from one caddy and sort the hangers onto a plurality of other caddys in a quick and easy matter.
These and other objects of the invention, as well as many of the intended advantages thereof, will become more readily apparent when reference is made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.